Are multivitamins unnecessary and dangerous as the media reports? The media gets their information from news releases, interviews, or actual reporting from attending a lecture or conference by a reporter in the employ of someone. Regardless of what the media is saying we know that the general health of Americans is deteriorating and at an increasing rate. We have huge sums of money procured to find cures. Much of it is wasted funding since in most cases there is not a "cure" per se. There is only change that can make the difference. When cancer is recognized more as a result of environmental poisoning and bad diet, and stress, and poor life style with lack of exercise, then change can take place. Before that time comes to pass, it is all public relations and moneyed interests beating a tin drum.
So what is it about multiple vitamins that make them such an easy target for criticism at this time? Perhaps it is the old "divide and conquer" because there are definitely several schools of thought regarding a good multivitamin making it an easy arena to attack. The movement to control the individual's availability to purchase multivitamins hinges on creating a perception that they are worthless or even dangerous and should only be taken under a doctor's prescription (although the doctor is untrained in the field of nutrition), and therefore the multivitamins must be removed from the open marketplace where the individual has control of his or her own health to that of a "qualified" but largely-ignorant professional.
Without the specifics of the content or quality of the multivitamin being attacked, the health industry has a difficult time responding to criticism. The multivitamin variations are numerous. We can, however, divide them into several categories and critically analyze them.
The Big Differences in the World of Multivitamins
First of all, when it comes to dietary supplements, there is the health-food store standard, also backed by the orthomolecular approach. Next, there is the emerging concept that food-based supplements with low potencies are the answer. Both of these are somewhat on the same side of the fence. Why? They both believe in purity and active ingredients for maximum absorption and assimilation.
Then, on the other side of the fence we have the pharmaceutical drugstore multivitamins. They actually are the ones that the public most frequently purchases. Not only are their potencies usually much lower, but they differ in tableting and excipients used. And all too often the form of the multivitamins differ, with the pharmaceutical brand multivitamin far more often using a synthetic form of a particular vitamin or mineral (e.g., Vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) instead of Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol)) that is far inferior in quality to that of the natural or other form found in a brand sold in health-food stores.
Additives and Quality
Often overlooked by consumers who see generic vitamin names on multivitamin labels and rarely look beyond, additives and quality are nevertheless of paramount importance. And it is here where the two types of multivitamins have important differences.
Just consider one of the top-selling multiples in the marketplace, which happens to be a drug-store multiple supplement for seniors. It is highly endorsed by both MDs and pharmacists. First, let's look at its excipients (the extra chemicals needed to make the tablet, complete the filling of the capsule, or added for some other unknowable reason):
Polyethylene Glycol, Polyvinyl Alcohol, Pregelatinized Corn Starch, Sodium Benzoate, Sucrose, Talc, Maltodextrin, Calcium Stearate, Sodium Aluminosilicate, Sunflower Oil, Colloidal Silicon Dioxide, Corn Starch, Crospovidone, FD&C Blue No. 2 Aluminum Lake, FD&C Red No. 40 Aluminum Lake, FD&C Yellow No. 6 Aluminum Lake, Gelatin, Hydrogenated Palm Oil, Hypromellose, and Modified Food Starch.
Do you want or need all those extra excipients? How do they affect assimilation? How do they affect your health? A crash course in additives will quickly help you decide, so read about them - all are easily found on the internet and known by other common names; such as Crosprovidone, which is PVP, and hypromellose as HPMC. When all of these additives are researched one wonders how they could possibly pass California's strict anti-carcinogen Proposition-65 requirements for human ingestion since some are related to chemicals that are carcinogens. Added to this you have sugar, colorings based on aluminum - a highly suspected trace mineral regarding Alzheimer's. Does this make the critics correct that Multivitamins are dangerous?
Regarding quality of the drug-store multivitamin, one of the most important differences is the use of the "dl" synthetic, and inferior, form of Vitamin E (which form has no biological activity). The formula has many other inferior forms of nutrients to name a few: Sodium selenate (a form of selenium that is not chelated and is easily reduced by Vitamin C into unabsorbable selenium); an unknown amount of sodium; a nonchelated (and therefore less-viable) form of zinc; and all at such low potencies that researchers consider them ineffective as discussed further on.
Let's now look at a typical health-food store multivitamin and see the difference. Here are the common excipients (some times limited to only rice powder):
Cellulose, stearic acid (vegetable), modified cellulose, magnesium stearate, silica. Coating: vegetable food glaze.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
